Turtle Lake and Kinkali

Nino meet me at about 10:30 on Sunday--about 11 p.m. Lincoln time. The temperature was in the 40s. We walked down hill from my apartment through a maize of winding streets almost to the river which divides the city. Tblisi is very hilly. Think San Francisco but with bigger and longer descents and climbs. Think Telegraph Hill and Maiden Lane with a thousand more steps.

We took a bus around to Vake Park, across from the building where I am pictured. From there we climbed up and up and up toward a place called Turtle Lake (the lake you can see in the landscape shot). On the way we stopped at an ethnographic village (I can't explain the title) and looked at old Georgian houses. It would be a bit like any number of living history museums we could find in the US. I have slides of this--too many to load. I have not yet figured out a way to put a large number of slides on to this blog.
Suggestions from you blogging experts very welcome.

We went on to this public resort--bit like Mahoney Park with a restaurant (closed), a beach with slides and such for swimming (lake had a thin sheen of ice on it), and lots of people walking. We didn't see other people walking the roadway to this lake but we saw many cars. And we were passed going and coming by runners--everyone of them a male. Bit like the training you can see going on by bikers in Colorado during the summer--pump your way to the top and have a gambol for the way down.

I'll post a few more photos of this climb above the lake. The views were dramatic.

Afterwards we got a ride a guy in a brand new Mercedes RV, the big one that looks like a safari wagon. He wove his way down the mountainside and then through the heavy city traffic like it was a gentle slalom run. He turned out to be a general in the Georgian army just doing a good deed giving a couple of strangers a life.

Then we ate kinkali at a busy, loud and popular restaurant. I leave it to you to find out what Kinkali is. It was good.

Miles